The Art Of Public Speaking

As a young child, I was painfully shy and scared of my own shadow for all sorts of reasons. As an adult, I had to overcome the problems ensuing from that condition. Fortunately, life presented me with plenty of opportunities to learn to be a confident speaker, though not without its footfalls I have to admit.

Over the last forty years I have learned to speak confidently in front any number people, from small groups of half a dozen to a concert hall in front of three thousand.

Here, I want to pass on one or two tips to anybody who is not that at good public speaking. Remember one important thing.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

Thinking you can just wing it is far too risky. You absolutely must plan your presentation. If you don't you are running the risk of dying on your feet.

First remember this. The accepted speed of delivery for tv broadcasters is three words per second. That is fast enough to neither bore by droning on at too slow a pace, nor totally lose your audience by going so fast that you are not allowing what you are saying to sink in.

Get your presentation in order. Pre-write it and practice saying it out loud.

Speak in short paragraphs to allow what your are saying to sink in and be digested by the audience. Allow them pause for thought. This also has the benefit of allowing you to catch your breath.

Be personable, polite, kind, modest almost to the point of self-deprecating. Above all learn to love your audience and they will love you back.

They haven't paid and taken time out to go and see you die on your feet. They have done all that to see you succeed!

Use a little humour at the start and at intervals. You're not just a speaker, you are now an informed entertainer!

Use rhetorical devices (the rule of three, repeat something three times to get the point home).

Use hyperbole (exaggeration) and slogans and chants and even a little poetry.

Ask the audience rhetorical questions (self answering questions you might call them).

Ask the audience closed questions to which the only answer can be yes."It's hot, isn't it?" for example on a stinking hot night.

Practice using cadence in your tone. That is the rise and fall of your voice. Learn to control it. This helps to keep the audience engaged instead of falling asleep as you drone on and on and on…..For a great example of how powerful cadence is, go and watch Martin Luther King's speech 'I had a dream.'

Learn to relax. Spend five minutes doing deep breathing exercises. And breathe in through your nose. That way you get more oxygen going directly to your lungs.

And then breathe out through your mouth. That way you haven't got fresh air fighting to get past the spent air come out of your mouth.

Before going up on the podium, go and chat a little with members of your audience. Then you are not getting up in front of total strangers. Friends relax us.

When you are up on stage, get your breathing under control and smile. Cast that smile far and wide to include the whole auditorium.

Make sure you have a glass of water next to you. A nervous dry mouth has slaughtered many a speaker.

Newsreader Trevor McDonald was once asked how he dealt with speaking to twenty million people every night. He said he simply imagined he was speaking to his old mum.

When you pick up the microphone and start to move around, remember, where your mouth goes the mic goes with it.

I have seen far too many people die a death because the microphone did not follow their mouth.

If your head turns to the left or right and the microphone doesn't follow, you go off mic. You will die on your feet.

Some microphones have an on/off switch on the body of the mic. Keep that twitchy, nervous, pinky little finger well away from it.

Involve your audience. Ask them a question and to give a show of hands.

Above all, try to relax and enjoy the experience. If you are nervous you will infect your audience. Likewise if you are relaxed.

Obviously you shouldn't drink alcohol before your presentation. Save it for later after your performance in the members bar, you'll enjoy it so much more after a successful presentation anyway.

Good luck, or as we say in the theatre, "Break a leg!"